German city evacuates high-rise apartments over fire risk

Sep. 21, 2017

BERLIN (AP) — Officials in the western German city of Dortmund say they are evacuating a residential tower block that's home to hundreds of people for fire safety concerns.

The city says the decision to evacuate more than 400 apartments in the "Hannibal 2" high-rise building was "unavoidable ... to protect the tenants living there."

Authorities said they plan to provide further information on the reasons for their decision late Thursday.

Officials in the nearby city of Wuppertal evacuated an 11-story apartment block in June because of concerns over exterior insulation similar to that of London's Grenfell Tower, where a fire that month killed about 80 people.